So I saw the new Star Trek Movie for the second time last night (it was the last showing at my local theater before it went bye-bye). I have to say that I was just as impressed with it the second time as I was when I first saw it. More than anything, it’s great to feel energized about Star Trek again, while also having clear direction for the franchise as a whole. And clear direction is good rather than ridiculous conjecture of whether the next movie would feature Riker on the Future Enterprise or O’Brien at Starfleet Academy.

 

I’m certainly not here to review the movie – that’d be way late in addition to being redundant as there are plenty of worthy (and almost universally glowing) reviews of the movie on the internet. But after taking a short glimpse back yesterday at the entirety of the Trek film franchise before I saw the new movie (again), I couldn’t help but smile widely at the effort that was put forth on this movie. I remembered in an instant why Nemesis was so bad and why this film was so good. Let me offer up a few thoughts on how all of this went down.

 

I think anybody that saw Nemesis in the theaters (all five of you in addition to myself) left the theater feeling seriously let down. I often hear the adjective stale used to describe where the film and the franchise had gone with Nemesis. Sure it was stale. But let's not pretend that it was just Star Trek's figurative sitting out of the fridge too long that made Nemesis stink. I would point out that it was pretty bad as well. Even some of the actors in the film have quite publicly noted that the making of the film was more than a bit disconcerting adding that they were not surprised at the end result (both in terms of quality and box office). To retell why it sucked would take too long and bore even the most hardened Trekkie. But in general, the film felt contrived, forced, and decidedly non-Trek in it's execution of what amounted to a masturbatory action fest for director Stuart Baird. As a result, the film performed the worst of any Trek movie at the box office in the history of the storied franchise. Adjust for inflation all you want, it still loses. I didn't just leave the theater feeling like they had cheapened Star Trek, I left wondering if we'd ever see another Trek movie again... and if we were to see it, how and when it could be saved from the low point that was Nemesis.

 

Well sure it took a few years (7 since Nemesis to be exact). And yeah, JJ Abrams pissed some hardcore fans off by basically rebooting the whole damn franchise. But as a true fan of Star Trek I have to say I'm damn glad the time was taken to do it right. Newsflash: the Star Trek movie is very good. And it appeals to much more than just the Trek fans of the past. The characters are endearing, the narrative compelling (even if not entirely coherent… but I’ll get to that in a minute), and the energy of the film is just undeniable. Let’s face it folks, the story is far from flawless (wait… who is Nero again???) and the thrust of time travel is at best tenuous (so Scotty didn’t actually derive the transporter equation that he derived???). But the energy of the film just makes you look right past it all and revel in the sheer spectacle that is Star Trek. Did anybody feel like they were watching a stale installment of a 40 year old franchise when they were watching this movie? I know I didn’t. And I know it isn’t the stunning performance of Tyler Perry (seriously?) that’s responsible for that.

 

With this movie, Star Trek is back in a big way, and I for one am glad. All those times you reminisced or waxed nostalgic watching reruns of Next Generation thinking that Star Trek was dead are over. Because while Rick Berman and company tried their mightiest to destroy the franchise, it has been saved and, dare I say, even reborn for all of us. I'm greatly anticipating scores of future movies from the franchise that will follow in the path blazed by the new Star Trek movie. And for once, this puts us Trekkers in even better territory than the fans of that other space franchise out there.